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Friday, September 18, 2009

Chios's aromatic mastic gum oozes silently and slowly from the wounds cut into the Mastic tree trunk and forms droplets. Diamond-like droplets fall to the ground and collect beneath the tree. Sparkling with a clear brilliance when the sun hits them, they lie on the ground protected from the soil and debris by a layer of white clay tamped down and flattened to form a table-like surface until they harden and are gathered. The white clay placed under the tree keeps it clean and transparent and is called a trapezi or table. One-thousand tons of kaolin is used per year on Chios to make the white tables under the mastic trees.

My husband Robert Seidel from The Essential Oil Company and I have sailed to the eastern Mediterranean beating into the meltemi wind howling from the northwest to visit the Greek island of Chios. We are on a mission to learn as much as we can about the Chios mastic tree and understand how the now European Union-protected Chios mastic gum is harvested. We have had the great fortune to meet two experts, John Perikos, author of many books including The Chios Gum Mastic, and Vassilis Ballas, who along with his wife Roula moved to Chios from Athens to become a mastic farmer and to provide ecotours of the mastic fields amongst other fascinating things. They have established a company called "masticculture".

John and Vassilis kindly spend time with us and share the mastic gum process and their vast knowledge, much of which is handed down verbally. Vassilis drives us around the island sharing all the secret fascinating places, which are tourist destinations, but so strangely signposted we miss them when driving ourselves. Vassilis takes us out into the mastic fields so we can experience the aromatic trees and the gathering process first hand.

Mastic gum must coagulate before it is collected.There are two major collection dates. One starts around August 15th and the other September 15th. The area under the tree is swept with a regular broom and the entire collection is picked up and put in a sack. The sacks are taken back to the village (originally by donkey, but now in a strange-looking vehicle that resembles a lawn mower on wheels with a truck-bed addition in the rear). They say you can tell a mastic grower by the vehicle and we see a determined old lady, her head wrapped tightly in a white scarf, driving a bunch of what could have been her grandkids through the town of Prygi, one of the quaint medieval mastic villages in one of these converted lawn mowers.The sacks of mastic harvest contain lots of soil and debris, as well as the gum, and they sit until October or November when the mastic gum cleaning process begins. The sacks are emptied into half barrels full of water. The leaves float and are collected with a sieve and put aside.The remaining material is leftin the water for three days. Calcium carbonate is added to the water changing the density and the mastic gum floats to the surface. The mastic is skimmed off and sorted. Gum must be refrigerated if it is stored before being delivered to the cooperative, which is in Chios town.

The Cooperative sorts the mastic again. This time women clad in pretty pale-blue smocks with matching hair coverings, and all wearing latex gloves, sit around a large table covered in mastic tears and with speed and dexterity using a small sharp pointed knife blade they cut away impurities and they "pick" through the gum, sorting it by size and color. Here also is a computer which analyzes quality by passing it through a light box that checks the color clarity and can also give an average size for payment. All mastic gum gathered must be sold to the Cooperative. The Cooperative was started in 1938. Mastic producers must sell to the cooperative and even if they want to make their own product they must sell the gum and then buy it back. The Cooperative has stabilized prices and has done a lot to promote Mastic gum with exports of Chios Gum mastic increasing considerable over the years since it was formed. The new chain of Gum Mastica boutiques one of which recently opened in New York is the brainchild of the commercial division of the Cooperative. [...]

You may wonder why mastic produces this wonderful therapeutic gum. The mastic is said to be in the tree to protect it. Vasillis says, "You can take the same tree and plant it in Sweden and it will not produce mastic". The mastic gum from Chios has been granted protection by the European Union with designations such as PDO - Protected Designation of Origin; PGI- Protected Geographical Indication and TSG Traditional Specialty Guaranteed. Only the Chios gum mastic has these designations.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

By Kayla Fioravanti, Registered AromatherapistBack to School with AromatherapyEvery school year I add another essential oil to my arsenal of therapies I use to deal with the "sickies and ickies" that the kids pick up at school. My kids are totally healthy all summer long but once they hit the classroom it seems the germs accumulate overnight. With aromatherapy we encounter less and less sick days as the years go on. There are several lines of defense that a mother can take. It takes a combination of being proactive and reactive to get through a school year successfully.

Back to school haircuts is the first indicator that it is time to add Tea Tree essential oil to the kids shampoo for lice prevention, because prevention is the best medicine for lice. My family has witnessed a lot of head lice outbreaks, but we have avoided being involved by adding just 1-2 drops of Tea Tree essential oil per ounce of shampoo and conditioner. In addition, whenever there is an outbreak at school I always make sure to apply Tea Tree through their hair. I simply get a few drops of Tea Tree essential oil onto my finger tips and run my hands through their hair from root to tip. [...]

Avoiding illness is critical for our children because they suffer from asthma. Any respiratory ailment sends their asthma into overdrive. Treating the air in our car and home for their asthma relief has become common place in our household. I developed the essential oil blend Breathe Green using Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Laurel leaf, Peppermint, Ginger, Eucalyptus, Ravensara and Lemon to respond to their immune and respiratory needs. A few days after I first blended Breathe Green I dispersed it into the car and successfully averted an Emergency Room trip. That was my first indicator that I was onto something with the Breathe Green blend. Last school year we used it in combination with asthma medications to successfully avoid respiratory infections, urgent care and emergency trips which had been the norm in the past.

On the first day of school I always carry a bottle of lavender with me to school. Everyone knows me as the aromatherapy lady so no one questions my lavender scented hand coming to touch the head of their teary anxiety ridden child. A simple method of helping moms and kids who are struggling with separation anxiety is to hand them a tissue with subtle scents of Lavender transferred from your fingers. It works every time not only does the Lavender calm the child but the interruption of the crisis helps to dissipate anxiety.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Looking for a natural perfume? A fragrance that does not contain a collection of synthetic chemicals, which place a burden on your liver and other detoxifying organs. Wander through any perfume counter at the local department store and your olfactory system is bombarded with aromas. Some have names you recognize like gardenia, jasmine, or even rose. But, if you take a closer look at these perfume formulas, it is unlikely you will find anything resembling plant-sourced material even though they may use the term “natural” or “nature identical.” Don’t be fooled. These terms do not mean the perfume was blended from essential oils or absolutes, which are all distilled, expressed, or dissolved from plant leaves, flowers, stems, roots, or seeds in a solvent base.

Unlike perfumes made from plant-based materials, most perfume counter perfumes are made from a combination of synthetic chemicals, derived from petroleum. These ingredients allow perfumers to create an array of fragrances that are either unavailable or difficult to obtain in nature. Of course they are less expensive, too.

However, there is growing public awareness about the relationship between synthetic ingredients—potential toxins—and health challenges. To maintain optimal health, natural perfume blending is a healthy green alternative. These perfumes are made from high-quality essential oils, which are known to have therapeutic health benefits and are truly natural. In this context, the term “natural” refers to plant-sourced perfumes. The plants are grown or wildcrafted naturally and, preferably, grown organically (without synthetic pesticides) and sustainably whenever possible.